As if the bug situation couldn't get any worse at my house, we've discovered a few Japanese beetles loitering on our sunflowers.
For those who have dealt with Japanese beetles, you know there are more where those come from. Those of you who haven't dealt with them, welcome to the states east of the Mississippi.
Japanese beetles are pretty and shiny, and they tear through the leaves of your plants viciously, with no native predators to give them the boot.
If you looked at the picture accompanying this and though, "Oh, that's what those are," you probably need to do something. But it doesn't have to be drastic or nongreen.
First find out how bad the problem is. If you're only seeing a couple at a time, it's pretty mild. If it looks like there are about 600 of them on your raspberries, you're in trouble. You can buy scent traps to get a better sense of how many there are, but do you really want to put out attractants? You can also dig into the lawn to see how many grubs there are. If you want to do that, go here for details. In our case, we have only seen three on the sunflowers so far.
Next, accept that you cannot kill all of the beetles that could eat your plants. They fly miles. Even if you treated your entire property, they'd still show up from other sites. Accept that you can just get rid of some.
You can use nematodes or milky spore to attack them. They are, respectively, a roundworm that feeds on the beetle grubs and a bacteria that offs the grubs. They're technically safe, but it's not that eco-friendly to introduce new bad guys into your environment, even if they're doing the lord's work. There are even parasites you can add, but do you want to be the neighbor pilling on the parasites?
Or you can do what we and many other homeowners are doing. You can choose plants that resist Japanese beetles and ditch the ones that attract them. (We're lucky. Our new yard has tons of lilacs and a sweetgum tree, two plants they don't care for.) My mother gave up a few years ago and ripped out her roses and raspberries. It wasn't worth battling the bugs every day just to end up with no roses and no raspberries. For a chart of what they like and what they don't, scroll to the bottom of this page.
And, for the ones you do find, carry a jar with a sealable top when you stroll through your yard. Fill the jar with water and a squirt of dishwashing liquid. When you see a Japanese beetle, put him in. He'll struggle for a while, but he'll succumb. (The soap is a must. We haven't tried earth-friendly soap yet for this, but have high hopes.) I'm a big fan of keeping the dead beetle jar outside where their friends can see them and, hopefully, choose another locale.
My brother suggests mounting them on toothpicks like the medieval pikes outside a castle, but that seems like a lot of work. It may come to that if they don't lay off our sunflowers.
Julie Todd is the night editor at The Herald News in Joliet. She and her
husband are looking to cut the chemicals and get back to basics -- minus the
granola and hemp clothing. They live in a home they bought last year in
Plainfield, where they're making changes to create their own little patch of
utopia.
Thought it was important to mention that Japanese Beetles give off a strong mating pheromone (no they aren't just doing some kind of cool air-dance) that attracts other beetles. This is why when we rarely see just one or two beetles. Where one is, there are probably dozens or even hundreds more.
So, although it may be tempting to mount them for other beetles to see, it will simply just attract more of them to "join the party". When you put the beetle in the soapy water, this will mask the pheromone smell.
Another tip for those of you who purchase the traps that are now available at stores. Be sure you put the bags far away from the plants and trees you are trying to protect. By all means, do NOT hang these traps/bags from or even near trees or shrubs. If you do so, the beetles will be attracted to the bag, but will easily divert to the buffet of trees and shrubs.
We are currently using a cedar oil spray to repel and kill the beetles as a natural remedy to this irritant pest! Hope this info helps!
Check out my blog on japanese beetles: http://www.biolawn.net/blog1
I suspected my brother's guerrilla tactics wouldn't work.
I had no idea that the pheromone is one of the reasons the water must be soapy. That's excellent to learn. I wonder if biodegredable soaps (like Dr. Bronner's) work just as well. If it's only the pheromone issue, I'd think so. Course, you've probably tried that. I'll have to trot over to your blog to see.
And hearing your advice about the traps is good. I've heard people complain that the traps just draw more beetles. That would actually be OK if it's far from the stuff they want to eat.
And the cedar oil sounds fantastic! I'm using a toilet cleaner right now with cedar oil in it, and I swear I want to sniff my toilet. ... I probably shouldn't have admitted that. ... But the point is that cedar oil is so safe and SO pleasant to work with.
Thanks for the advice, the correction and the blog link. This will be very helpful for all of us.
Thanks!